TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Indicating topic in TOC From:mpriestl -at- ca -dot- ibm -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 16 Aug 2001 17:57:45 -0400
Chuck Martin writes:
>What topics shouldn't appear in the TOC? Topics that contain further
>explanation, for example. Say I write a procedure, and in a step a user
has
>to make a choice between several complicated options. Rather than put all
>that information in the topic itself (making the topic long and creating a
>large distance between one step and the next), I'll put in a small "More
>Information" link that leads to a topic with all that information. That
>"More Information" topic doesn't need to be in the TOC (it would be
indexed,
>of course, once we get out system indexed).
When you reached that "more info" topic via the index, would it make sense
on its own? How does the user know what task or tasks it relates to?
I'm a strong believer in always surfacing topics in the TOC. The point of a
synchronizing TOC is to allow the user to orient themselves. If a topic
isn't in the TOC, then the topic is off the map, it's floating in space,
with no apparent context. That undermines the credibility of the TOC, as
well as making the topic itself hard to evaulate when its reached via
random access (like search). The only exception I can think of is topics
that are designed to be read only in one context: if it's not indexed for
search, and available only via that one link, then I can see a case for
leaving it out of the TOC.
Even if it's just an appendix of "miscellaneous info" at the end of your
TOC, providing some place for the user to mentally locate the topic is
better than no place at all. In the example you gave, I'd think of it as a
subtopic of the base procedure, and locate it there.
Michael Priestley
DITA Specialization Architect
mpriestl -at- ca -dot- ibm -dot- com
Dept 833 IBM Canada t/l: 778-3233 phone: 416-448-3233
Toronto Information Development
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
